Viva la Chile !!!

Whether it was the Chilean government or the mining industry, the flawless final rescue of the trapped miners should give us pause to reflect on their handling of this disaster and what we, the mighty United States, might learn from them.

The San Jose copper and gold mine is a state-owned industry, which has been criticized in press reports for past safety violations. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has said that the mine will never open again.

Whatever the prior problems in mining safety, we can only be impressed with everything that has transpired since the accident. First of all, that there was apparently a safe place that was equipped with enough air supply, food, and water to maintain 33 miners until help could arrive.

Second, small holes were quickly bored to establish contact and to transfer further maintenance necessities to those trapped half a mile down in the earth.

And the final denouement: all 33 men survived for 69 days deep in the bowels of the earth and were eventually brought home without a single casualty. Further, their experience seems to have been one of bonding rather than fighting among themselves. They were supported throughout the ordeal by constant contact with those on the ground, including video cameras and messages to and from loved ones. Psychologists were available to help.

This also included daily contact with doctors who monitored their nutritional and electrolyte balances, prescribed the diet to bring them back from the initial starvation levels before contact was made, so that when they were rescued their nutritional status was excellent. They had lost body fat but not muscle mass through proper diet and some exercise. They were not confined to the small rescue chamber but had the full run of the mine so that they could exercise, some even ran through the half mile of the accessible mine corridors to maintain fitness.

Now that was a "heck of a job" indeed. Take note Brownie and Bushie.

Chile has intermittently had socialists in charge of its government, although the U.S. has intermittently interrupted the will of their people: i.e. the CIA-backed military coup that ousted and killed it's democratically elected Marxist President Allende in the 1970s. And its 2010 elections resulted in a turnover from ten years of moderate socialist presidents to its current right-wing government.

Nevertheless, many socialist inspired policies must still exist, presumably including an emphasis on the welfare of the workers rather than the owners of mines. President Pinera says, "A country that wants to call itself developed is a country that takes care of its workers." He added that "Chile owes protection and dignity to all of its workers."

In the recent disasters in the U.S. (whether mines or off shore drilling), it was revealed that safety regulations had been routinely ignored in favor of corporate profits. We would say the same thing about protecting our workers; and we have regulations that do. The problem is the years of neglect and intentional ignoring of the regulations under the influence of those who were supposed to be regulated. That's the Bush way; Obama is different, but he hasn't been able to move fast enough to replace all the old appointees.

Chileans should be proud of the way they have handled this disaster. I can't really say that the U.S. has anything to be proud of in any of our recent disaster responses.

Ralph